Lignocellulosic-Derived Nanostructures From Latin American Natural Resources: Extraction, Preparation, and Applications

Abstract In materials research area, nanotechnology brings new opportunities for sustainable uses and applications of high-value bio-based materials from wood, forest, and agroindustrial residues. The merging of nanotechnology and lignocellulosic biomass utilization is expected to enhance industry’s ability to produce consumer goods from lignocellulosic-based material in an improved manner. This was demonstrated in this chapter by some Latin American research groups, which obtained lignocellulosic nanostructures using different approaches and the quite diverse natural resources of the region but considering, in most of the cases, mainly agroindustrial wastes. In this sense, although hierarchical and diverse structures were present in the starting materials, the research groups were able to develop advances in chemical and mechanical nanostructure preparation techniques. In general, considering applications, the nanostructures obtained were used as a reinforcing phase in composites and films, as well as fillers. Some of this work demonstrated important advantages and improvement on the mechanical and barrier properties of materials. Nevertheless, research on the effect of the fabrication methodology used on the morphology and degree of crystallinity of the resulting nanostructures is important to understand since these structural characteristics are important for their physicochemical function. Based on all the data presented in this chapter, we conclude that it is possible to use diverse natural resources to obtain lignocellulosic nanostructures with suitable size, shape/morphology, crystallinity, and aspect ratio and that they could become a very efficient system for designing and developing new bio-based nanomaterials.